Aadhaar cards have become a must have document

Aadhaar card or just the number is now mandatory to link with PAN number.

Aadhaar number is now optionally linked with Voter-ID card/Number.

Aadhaar is mandatory to link with UAN(Universal Account Number) of the EPFO.

Aadhaar is optionally seeded in Bank and Mobile operators database.

Most non-governmental agencies are mandated to hold tokenized aadhaar databases and people need not even share their Aadhaar number and just a Temporarily generated Virtual-ID is enough in many places.

After all of this progress on the Aadhaar for Governance or e-Governance front, Government is trying to collate aadhaar numbers of families as a unit to allot them a family-ID.

Families in India are a loose concept as prostitutes and destitute can only dream to have one. Just like how the Socio Economic Caste Census of 2015 flopped in a grand manner, so will this family-ID scheme too as its not well thought through.

Poverty in India has reduced over the last decade but due to Covid-19 disruptions this statistic has seen an increase. Many workers have returned to their native places as have software engineers who have had to work from home.

The government of the day has launched a Digital India scheme which has the JAM trinity as its fulcrum. PM Jan Dhan Yojana had become the largest financial inclusion program in the world in a very short time. It now boasts of 44 crore bank accounts holding more than ₹1.5 trillion in aggregate balances.

Mobile connectivity received a boost after the launch of Reliance Jio.

The government had made Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) mandatory for many of the Central and  CSS(Centrally sponsored) Schemes. It is heartening to note that cumulative transfers through the DBT to people including Cash and In-Kind transfers have aggregated to more than ₹20 trillion.

Government has been doing an assorted set of Direct Benefit Transfers such as PMGKY during the pandemic, PM Kisan to the farmers, PMAY to the housing ministry beneficiaries, Fertilizer DBT to the farmers in Kind, LPG-Pahal to gas consumers etc.

The combined effect of all these steps is that people have had some semblance of Social Security. The flip side of these piece meal efforts at providing benefits is that many people who have slipped out of the net or have been wantonly excluded number in millions.

The government is trying to gather data of informal workers who do not have epfo or esic membership and giving them an e-Shram card. It is astounding to note that already 20 crore e-shram cards have been issued.

It is also likely that all farmers who are beneficiaries of the PM-Kisan and fertilizer DBT are also likely to be excluded from the e-shram scheme. 

Give 5 kg grains every month to all Aadhaar holders

Public Distribution System(PDS) in India where the NFSA stipulates 35 kg of rice or wheat to every family has led to exclusion.

In Jharkhand due to non linking of ration card with the aadhaar number people have been denied rations which has lead to some deaths. There is a solution after all.

If 80 crore people are included in the ration card database and if some of the poor people are still excluded it would be wise to deliver 5 kg of rice or wheat every month to anyone with an aadhaar card at the rate at which APL families are provided grains. Such ration could be sold on aadhaar authentication only.

It is not necessary to link such aadhaar numbers with ration card. Anyone not in the ration database should still be included.

The 15 lakh fetish

I was recently astounded to know how the critics of modi are hell bent on getting 15 lakh rupees in their bank accounts. They all are asking 15 lakh from a chaiwala PM who calculated that if all the black money that has gone out of the country be brought back it can be distributed to every person in the country and each one will get 15 lakh rupees. FYI 15 lakh rupees equals 1.5 million rupees which is approx $21,430 US dollars.

Silly Critics !!!

Thou shall not Demonetize

This is the time for reflection.
This is the time for introspection.
This is the time for action.
This is the time to enjoy.
So many days past the Demonetization Date(8th Nov,2016) we are still not clear if the harmful effects of demonetization were worth the advantages. No one can measure the costs and benefits of this step without being partial or biased.
I may say there cannot be an impartial brush to paint an unbiased picture of demonetization.

What ever has happened has happened. We cannot dwell in the past. We need to move on.

Our country has vast resources and commentators have said most of them go for a waste. When compared with wrong policies of import substitution and license Permit Raj demonetization goes down as a calculated mis-step. And not wakeful dreams of commanding heights of the economy.

It was a risky manoeuvre that cost some lives, some people some money and some people source of income.

Critics are convinced that it was an unmitigated disaster. They do not need any torch or light to see the writing on the wall if at all they are seeing. They are convinced that it indeed was so.

When someone follows you blindly and you don't like it, you tend to run towards a ditch and do an unexpected somersault over it hoping the followers fall into it(Sic).

So much for your followers are your own "Bhayiyon aur behenon" who are blindfolded by their love for you just like the critics blinded by their hatred.

There cannot be a neutral person who neither likes you nor dislikes you. Least of all ... How could you expect such a nonexistent entity to paint a picture of demonetization?

Followers of virat kohli are in love with his batting and are more than willing to give him chance after chance even if he is not in form. He has his own detractors though. Mr. Modi too I hope will get many more chances of coming good with the bat. It is then that he needs to swear certain Don't Dos like

"Thou Shall Not Demonetize"

Needed a UBI and DBT combo

With discussion around universal basic income in India heating up several politicians around the country have expressed varying opinions. One class of people say we should move completely to UBI and stop all subsidies. Another class of people say we should continue with the current system and try and include as many as possible within the welfare mechanism. Another class of people say that we should have DBT coexist with UBI and UBI should be in addition to DBT.

I am neither an economist nor studied commerce but want to suggest a few ideas.

Poverty in India is so debilitating that I have this cringe and guilt feeling about all the comforts I have.

I also want absolute poverty to end as soon as possible.

Hence it is my duty to suggest alternatives before the government. We could keep discussing for ages but only when things on ground start moving is when real changes happen.

Direct Benefit Transfer(DBT) is expanding at break neck speed and covering almost all schemes of the central government. Since aadhaar is being insisted upon all of these schemes a thought occurred to me that we could have both DBT and UBI co-exist.

Every person should be entitled to some basic income which is redeemable by subsidies that person receives. If the person does not receive any subsidies then he should be earning a universal basic income. This concept necessitates measuring how much benefit every person receives. It looks to be the right approach.

Every person should be free to choose UBI or in kind benefit or choose to opt out.

Also subsidies are a concept unique to India and it definitely is a dying concept. What we should be doing is to enable people to earn decent amounts of income. So a life cycle approach and long term view of ending all subsidies need to be taken.

As regards the economics of subsidies, the UBI+DBT combo does not put too much additional burden on the exchequer and solves a big dilemma in front of the government. It has to take a decision on UBI soon and it also wants subsidies to be limited to the absolutely needy.

Aadhaar Roundup - 5

(Disclaimer: factual accuracy of the numbers is contested)

Very soon we will be having more than 100% Aadhaar enrolment in a majority of the states. Since the last Aadhaar Roundup Number 4 was way back in 2014, I am going to list out the outcomes of all those significant use cases of aadhaar.

PMJDY makes use of aadhaar in a big way: We all know PMJDY has been a major success. It has allowed govt to channel subsidies and improved self respect among people.

New Direct Benefit Transfer to save 14000 crore: We all know govt claims to have saved 57,000 between 2014 and 2017 crore which makes this 14,000 crore sum look paltry.

Indian govt launches biometric attendance system: More than 2 lakh employees of the central govt are making attendance daily using AEBAS. 45k employees are still outside the purview of this and hence may face action.

Aadhaar number to be included in service book: This measure has detected fake employees on the rolls of the govt esp in Kashmir.

Real estate transactions to be tracked via aadhaar:  This has not been mandatory but it is optional.

Mobile connections to be linked with aadhaar numbers: 60% mobile connections(as on 3rd march 2018) and 17 crore PAN cards have been aadhaar linked.

Human-Less Banking: Even though automation will take away a few jobs it will benefit the economy by putting people into more productive employment.

Government to link all social schemes with aadhaar: More than 420 schemes of the central govt have made aadhaar mandatory and nearly 65 crore people have benefited. 3 lakh 44 thousand crore rupees has been transferred into the accounts of people using DBT mechanism. Govt claims to save 75k crore from this.

Government planning aadhaar based Health Scheme: While this has taken a long time to come to fruition it has recently been declared that Aayushman bharat will give cashless treatment upto 5 lakh to 50 crore or 10 crore households.

Transport Department to seed aadhaar number of vehicle owners and licenses: This is an ongoing exercise and aims to reduce duplication in driving licenses and stricter punishment for law breakers.

Indian city to use Aadhaar numbers to clean voter lists: Election Commission of India is going to link all aadhaar numbers with EPIC/Voter Cards. Nearly 33 crore aadhaar to voter card linkages have already been done.

India to launch biometric airport entry pilot: Several airports are using this mechanism to enter airports.

Marriage portals to firewall fake grooms: This and not only this Skype is using Aadhaar to authenticate its users.

Prisoners to be enrolled for aadhaar: All prisoners have been enrolled into aadhaar and in several instances it was not known that they were lodged in jails and upon receipt of their aadhaar at homes people have become aware that they in fact were lodged in jails and not dead as presumed earlier.

AIIMS launching portal to let people book beds online: E-hospital project and issuance of UHID has been a success and the dashboard shows every day progress.

Apart from all these several positives have come due to aadhaar. Children who were enrolled into aadhaar and subsequently lost and lodged in government child protection centres have been united with their parents due to aadhaar biometrics.

Aadhaar linkage to PAN and Mobile phones is raising eyebrows. Not only that Aadhaar to bank account linkage is causing people to protest the high handed measure. Nearly 87 crore bank accounts have been linked with aadhaar till date.

Apart from these successes aadhaar has found uses in delivering a variety of services that people make use of every day such as renting bikes, availing credit and investing in stock markets. Govt is trying to link aadhaar with diseases such as TB and AIDS so that it could be used as a tool for epidemiological studies. Related field of econometric studies at a granular level is going to glean a lot of new information.

Indian Census is passé - Go for Digital Census in 2021

In the times of Aadhaar and Digital India does Census even have any meaning? I mean since the colonial times(1871 to be exact) Indians have been counted to keep track of the population. The most recent census was the 15th held in the year 2011. After the Aadhaar project was launched in 2010 Sept 30th nearly 88% of the population has been allotted an Aadhaar number.

Every 10 years school teachers are faced with enormous task of door-to-door survey in an area near their school. It is an onerous task which apart from election duties saps the energies of the teachers. The consumer affairs and public distribution department keeps track of families as a unit. There are other departments too like the health department which may be interested in ensuring family planning and hence keep records of the people. These demographic information collected during census does not go beyond data collection and analysis. Rarely is data from census used in any meaningful way as part of planning for welfare. 

Planning and Implementation of Digital Census

Census data being collected at the family level, there should be a Data Collection Standards Committee which decides what data needs to be mandatory and what is optional. Next a digital database created which could be populated with census data collected from every enumerator. The digital census is not a new concept and it has been implemented in many other countries.

If aadhaar database is maintained well it would seem that there would not be any necessity of having a Census at all. Births and Deaths would be reflected in the aadhaar database. If aadhaar numbers of family members are collected during census and actual number of families or dwelling units counted it would aid in better targeting of subsidies.

Targeting of Subsidies to a Family

Since every family would be counted, this can make India a data rich nation. Epidemiological studies, Internal migration, econometric analysis etc can aid the government in reaching the masses in distress for help.

Aadhaar for Dummies

Aadhaar has become such a complicated technology that it would need elucidation by the leading lights of the day. 

First up - It was just beyond the reach of the critics to understand its benefits. Secondly they were hankering for a full stop to the project arguing that it endangers people's right to life. They definitely need to read this book called "Aadhaar for Dummies".

Dummy aadhaar numbers such as the Virtual-ID has further complicated the technology and it sometimes becomes difficult to convince the ordinary citizens that it was for their own good.

Can we predict farmer distress and prevent farmer suicides

This can definitely be done with the help of machine learning if the data for all the farmers who had taken the loans is available at hand.Different attributes can be taken into account while creating a model that predicts the probability of a farmer suicide like the crop for which they are taking loan, season, success rate of the crop, water availability at the given region etc and once the model is ready one can predict the suicide of the farmer.

Aadhaar Virtual ID patch

Green Wars! EVs are the Future but right now its the CONVERTIBLE

If this statement were to be made 10 years back people would have laughed as there were other technologies like hydrogen fuel cell Etc which were perceived to be equally good. Indian government seems to have set the cat among the pigeons with its electric push. EESL the greening arm of the government has just last month procured 500 electric Tigor EVs from Tata motors against stiff competition from rivals such as Mahindras for the 10,000 electric vehicle contract.

So what is the status of the industry now?

Since vehicles usually last for more than 20 years it is the right time for manufacturers to launch vehicles with CONVERTIBLE features. That is with a chassis and body of a petrol vehicle with a petrol engine but with features to convert it to Electric Vehicle in case of need sometime in 2030 or later.

Government Mandate

What is more the government should mandate say after about 2022 or 23 to compulsorily sell vehicles with this convertible feature.

MGNREGS Revamp

MGNREGS is a money guzzler. In this helicopter money scheme all is going waste. Better thing would be to provide income supplement to villagers/sub-urban dwellers via-aadhaar linked methods. What is needed is registration of labour contractors. Just expand the MGNREGS to any job that any organization wants done. Track the payments the organization makes to the person and supplement the income by suitable percentages. The theme or goal here should be to encourage people to stay employed no matter how menial the income. Organizations will be more than happy to keep their employees as they need to pay less. This way govt can partner with the employment providers and create a win win situation for all by better tracking of money flows and income. Enablers and a key requirement would be electronic payments of salaries and wages all across the country.

Retro fitting privacy into aadhaar

Aadhaar project has invited wrath of the privacy advocates and civil society for being lax on security and privacy of individuals. The supreme court is expected to give a verdict tomorrow on whether privacy is a fundamental right or not. Once the supreme court asserts that privacy is a fundamental right although it has not found mention in the constitution(by oversight), the case against the aadhaar validity will continue to be heard by the three judge bench.

Many well intentioned people have suggested mitigation measures such as destroying the aadhaar database and arming people with biometrics laden smart cards. Many privacy fearing people have blocked their biometric authentication by locking it.

Very few people have seen it as a technology problem that can be addressed using technological measures. One such Idea that I have suggested in online forums is to make it harder for companies to correlate databases and building profiles of individuals based on the aadhaar number.
Addendum: Recent press reports suggest that UIDAI is looking at providing dummy numbers to companies to seed in their databases which will ensure uniqueness yet preserving privacy as these dummy numbers cannot be used to find the real aadhaar number.

I have found interesting avenues for research on differential privacy and how correlation of databases can be avoided.

Visa Ban Good for Indians

H1B visa ban for Indians is good for Americans as well as Indians. Indians will no more be used as a punching bag. Till recently america used to import software laborers from India so that they could be used for target practice in shooting incidents. This will not be the case anymore.

Digital India and the unforeseen uses of aadhaar

With increasing importance being attached to aadhaar by the Modi government, it has made aadhaar the fulcrum of the Digital India Movement. Apart from the use of aadhaar in accurately identifying beneficiaries of government welfare some amazing and unforeseen uses of aadhaar number have come to the fore.
Pesky little uses of aadhaar are emerging from unforeseen directions....

1) Renting Bikes: No one would believe but duplicate copy of the aadhaar cards are being used to rent bikes in GOA. I saw with my own eyes how a person rented a bike in GOA with just a tattered aadhaar card(number).

2) OPD Appointments at Govt Hospitals: You might not have thought about this but your government is on an overdrive to ease the appointment process in hospitals. What is more, It has even thought of calling you(over phone) in case your wife delivered a baby to inquire about the child's health and inform that your wife's account has been credited with 6k rupees as maternity benefit for delivering in an hospital. Also confirm gender of the child and start the process of authorizing benefits in case of girl child. All this due to aadhaar.

3) Survey of India Maps:
Survey of India first published maps in 1793 and since has digitized maps of the country side. The maps are available for download for anyone using aadhaar number only.

4) Aadhaar linked Motor Insurance/Driving License/Vehicle Registration:
This will soon be on its way. Thirty percent of the driving licenses in India are found to be fake or duplicate with every person having at-least two or more of those. It is also a very tedious task to solicit insurance for motor vehicles esp two-wheeler. With aadhaar linking of vehicle registrations and driving licenses the government will be in a position to map all insurance policies to vehicles on the road. It may also aid law enforcement if all vehicles on road are accounted for.

5) Aadhaar linked land/property registration:
This is expected to be a step in mapping assets of the people to their rightful owners. People who cannot fight for their rights or economically weak will benefit if land and property titles are clear, legitimate and pucca.

6) Aadhaar linking of PAN/bank accounts:
This use case involves linking aadhaar with bank accounts and IT returns. People who honestly pay taxes are expected to benefit as the dishonest will fall into the tax net. In future anyone with the aadhaar number only should be able to file tax returns.

Aadhaar is an excellent security question !!!!

Despite the hype and hoopla about aadhaar and its dangers, I would still recommend the government to expand its role to two new applications. One for Aadhaar linking of mobile connections and other for aadhaar linking of Voter IDs.

But using it to force kids to enroll and/or deny mid day meals is taking it to the extreme. That kids do not like to eat more than 60 grams per day of cooked food in govt schools is the real lament.

Amid all this.... we are definitely missing the woods for the bushes. Aadhaar can serve as an excellent way of restoring someone access to his or her online account/digital identity. Aadhaar can easily check if the person authenticating is alive or not. This and the fact that aadhaar authentication relies on biometrics which does not change much over the life of a person, may be used as a final adjudication of whether the person is who he/she claims to be.

If a person is aadhaar authenticated and immediately is given an option to set a password for his account in any website/service or app, then subsequent aadhaar authentication might just be possible with passwords instead of biometrics. Everyone by now would have learnt about the biometric lock that aadhaar(UIDAI) has come up for the benefit of all those who would not like their biometric authentication without their consent. The problem with biometric locking is that it just shuts out all future biometric authentications and would need biometric authentication itself to unlock the lock.

Many businesses are already game for using aadhaar for a variety of services. Microsoft, shaadi.com to name a few are already using it.

Majority of the Indian population being illiterate may not be able to remember passwords and prove who they are to any of the e-services. But a minority of the people might be willing to lock their biometrics and opt for a password-instead-of-aadhaar-auth(or whatever you may call it) kind of system.

Now the aadhaar authentication system is built on a black box which does only authentications. UIDAI is least interested in what you are authenticating for. The authentication-user-agency asking for your biometrics may use your biometrics only once according to Aadhaar bill passed recently. But nothing stops them from illegitimately storing the biometrics and misusing it at a later date.

So the importance of biometric lock is very significant. Some activists have even suggested biometric locking by default for all aadhaar holders. In this context password-instead-of-aadhaar-auth might be of significant use for the upwardly mobile.

The least the government could do is to start a service for storing the password-instead-of-aadhaar-auth as an all encompassing social security key. A key which opens the gates for someones social benefits while protecting them from unnecessary biometric authentications.

If the government is to trust a mere password instead of full blown authentication, it has to be sure that the person is literate and has made an informed choice of using the password-instead-of-aadhaar-auth.

The India stack has a consent mechanism which allows biometric authentications from stored files but there is very little clarity on this right now.

Since several years UIDAI has been trying to convince biometric device suppliers to make use of keys supplied by the UIDAI. This feature would allow UIDAI to disable any biometric device or group of such devices should it suspect that they are being misused.

The future is all bright for the aadhaar and it remains to be seen how much of this path breaking technology sees uptake across the world. For Indians it has already become their AADHAAR(Support).

Pathetic e-service portal of LIC

Life insurance Corporation of India true to its name is a public sector behemoth. It is years behind the competition in terms of selling online policies. I am a customer of LIC and have enrolled policies in their e-service portal. The portal neither suggests me any new policies I can buy nor provides a way of buying new policies.
I am sure millions of LIC customers are using the portal for paying(grudgingly) for pathetic services. Hopeless is an understatement. The website a few snapshots of which I have included is woefully short of "zing"...

Here is the dinosaur era link to pay premium online:

This is the welcome page of the e-service portal with bullshit and useless links.

The opening page itself talks about "kanoon" and wants me to add policies. But I want new policy baba.
If you are confused and dying to purchase a life insurance from LIC online and hope to purchase an insurance before dying for the benefit of your loved ones... Like, comment below or still better tweet this post and tag the prime minister or the minister of electronics & IT. That is the best way to bring about change. Yes... I have heard so many stories and fables about how responsive they are. Try it.

Justice delayed is Justice denied

(Excerpts from the book rebooting India, more such extracts to follow)

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst

-Aristotle

At risk of stating the extremely obvious, the Indian judicial system is in trouble. By any measure you choose, our judiciary is a woeful under performer, whether it is in the number of judges and courts available to us, or the speedy disposal of cases placed before them. We have only ten to fifteen judges per million people, and our judge-to-population ratio is among the lowest in the world. As of 2014, the total number of pending cases across India was a staggering 30 million. If the judiciary at its existing strength were to roll up its sleeves and tackle the herculean task of resolving all the cases pending across the country, Andhra Pradesh High Court Judge V.V. Rao estimated it would take them 320 years to clear the backlog. A few years ago, Delhi Chief justice A. P Shah admitted that the Delhi High Court was lagging behind by 466 years; in an attempt to clear up its caseload, the court decreased the average time spent hearing a case to a little over five minutes.

Even five minutes in court would be a welcome relief for the 3,00,000 inmates of India's prisons who languish in custody while waiting for their case to be heard. Their numbers are growing steadily, and many of them are either illiterate or poorly educated. If their case is to be heard by a higher court- as in the case of an appeal-they're in for another endless wait, since it takes an estimated fifteen to twenty years for a case to wend its way from the lower courts all the way up to the supreme court. No wonder, legal cases in India often become family heirlooms, with the children and grand children of the litigants faithfully continuing to fight for their family's cause long after the original complainants are dead and gone.

Sanction 5000 rupee overdraft to every aadhaar linked Jan Dhan account

5000 rupee loans were promised to jandhan account holders. Banks were using their discretion in sanctioning the loans. A promise is a promise. UPA it could be recalled had promised to give 100 rupees to every person who enrolls for aadhaar. The promise was never kept in view of the precarious fiscal situation then.

Now, After Demonetization banks are full of cash and people are dying of cashless-ness. This situation has arisen because only a few have large amounts of cash. Poor don't even have minimum balance, how will they withdraw money. The government should ready a scheme to give incentive by either letting people avail 5000 rupee loans in their aadhaar linked accounts electronically or let them apply in banks for the promised Overdraft to everyone.
Back of envelop calculations show that this will lead to re-monetisation upto 1.25 lakh crore if every one of the 25 crore jandhan account holder uses the OD facility.

BBPS- All Bills Single Day Deadline

As the name suggests "Bharat Bill Payment System" is a noble and grandiose mission, a solution looking for problems. Sometime ago there was a committee of learned men which calculated that on the whole our countrymen pay more than 20 lakh crore amount in bills to utilities or service providers every year.

It beats me as to how regulatory diktat can solve problems associated with electronic payments. How will people take to electronic payments if you make them visit a kiosk? Even if there is some value addition won't it be better if customers themselves acquire digital skills. BBPS looks more like a solution searching for a problem. Several sites mention that banks would like to charge a small amount for the convenience provided due to the service. If I may chip in my suggestion to the already voluminous recommendations, I would like to get rid of payments on various days and pay only on one day of my choice. I would also like to have a "Single Deadline Payment".... which can be called All Bills Single Day Deadline.

I am completely exhausted of paying the following people monthly on different days:

Telecom Provider

Electricity Provider

Water Service

Gas or LPG service

Insurance Companies

Home EMIs
DTH bill
etc etc etc....

Here is some information from various sites:

History:

RBI’s plan to implement an ‘anytime anywhere’ centralized payment system is based on a report submitted by the GIRO (Government Internal Revenue Order) Advisory Group. GIRO Advisory Group (GAG) was constituted by the RBI in October 2013, under the chairmanship of Prof. Umesh Bellur, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay to implement a national GIRO-based Indian Bill Payment System.  The panel had recommended a mechanism for centralized bills payment system in India, mainly by laying out 2 organizations: 

• Bharat Bill Payment Services (BBPS) 
• Bharat Bill Payment Operating Units (BBPOUs)

What is it Exactly?

As per the framework, a customer will have a single location—physical or electronic—where she can pay bills such as for electricity, telephone, water, gas, and direct-to-home television. There will be instant confirmation once the payment is made. Payments can be either made in cash or through any of the various electronic modes of payment.
(While I am all for convenience of the customer.... It beats me what new thing the BBPS is bringing to the table... What problem it is trying to solve)